The Original Mushin Blog
I’ve previously mentioned a book called Fudochi Shimmyo Roku (Records of the Wondrous Mind of Immovable Wisdom) — a key text of our lineage. I’d like to credit Fudochi as being the original Mushin Zen Blog — a series of letters written in the 1600s by the esteemed Zen priest Takuan Soho (of Japanese pickle fame) to his student, a renowned swordsman and strategist, Yagyu Munenori. I’ve read this book many times, but I had the occasion to recently re-read it again with students and a few things left an impression on me.
Much of the book is contextualized within high-level swordsmanship, which can make it challenging to relate to our modern experience. However, when I reread the text, I was surprised to see the context for my own beginning in Zen training spelled out:
“A mind that stops in any one place will not be able to move freely… If there is any thought in the mind, although you are listening to a person, you will not be able to hear. This is because the mind is stopped on thought.”
I’ve said before that this was why I started in Zen. Takuan goes on to explain:
“The reason is that there is something on your mind. If that something is abandoned, the mind becomes No-Mind, which only works according to its proper use. But any attempt to remove that something is already a thought. Keep the ordinary mind and after a while, of itself, it will naturally attain No-Mind. This cannot be accomplished hurriedly.”
One of things I’ve always loved about the book is the number of vivid metaphors and stories Takuan uses to describe the proper functioning of the immoveable mind. For example: the moment of striking flint, cutting the before and after, not leaving a hair’s breath interval, having no dwelling place, and a ball on swift moving waters.
It’s important to remember that Takuan was writing to a very experienced student in Munenori who underwent hard physical training in order to regularly face life-and-death. And as a teacher, Takuan was probing Munenori to take his training deeper. A place I’ve been hung up for more than 20 years with this book is Takuan’s description of hara (lower abdomen), which is a fundamental training modality in our lineage. Basically, Takuan talks about placing the mind in the hara as a beginning stage and having the mind permeate everywhere as an advanced stage of training. I recommend reading the book in its entirety, but I’ve highlighted some parts from Fudochi below related to elementary (which I’m calling fundamental) and advanced stages so you can read for yourself. After, I’ll share my commentary.
Fundamental
Sages and saints lived constantly throughout their lives (from beginning to end) by kei (reverence, sincerity) / shuichi muteki (one master, no rivals)…. This means not letting the mind go anywhere through concentrating in one place — isshin furan (one mind, no distractions).
In training, the procedure is to begin firstly with the mind collected. To collect the mind, which is usually taken up by the external world, is to put your mind in the lower abdomen (hara)… In this stage, the mind is disciplined and never left unguarded, otherwise it will lead to disturbance. To discipline the mind this way is only temporary.
It is like tying a cat with a rope to prevent it from catching a baby bird nearby. A cat tied by a rope will not function freely. But train the cat not to harm the bird when they are together, so that he can be free to move anywhere. This is the meaning of “Establish the mind of intention having no dwelling place.”
Whenever the mind is directed, the whole person follows and the enemy us sure to defeat you. It is better to keep the mind in the abdomen just below the navel, and this will enable one to accord with the changes in the enemy’s movement. Even dogs can do this. But from the ultimate point if view, keeping the mind below the navel is an elementary stage — not the highest, nor the supreme end of training.
Advanced
The Mind of Mushin (No-Mind) is a mind that is not rigid or one-sided. At the time when there are no distinctions or deliberations, thought or anything in it, the mind will pervade throughout the whole being and this is the Mind of Mushin. Do not place your mind anywhere.
If the mind is directed in any one place, it is called hen (one-sided). When the mind pervades everywhere is is called sho (right, true, correct, proper)…. If the mind is not localized anywhere, it will fill up your whole being and extend through your whole body to its very limits. It will be in your hands when it is needed by the hands. It will be at any place wherever needed.
When Mushin is really attained, the mind moves from one thing to another without stopping and will not be lacking in any one thing. Let it fill up your whole being like being filled with water, and it will be capable of use whenever and wherever it is needed.
The Original Mind is like water which flows freely without stopping at one spot, whereas the Deluded Mind is like ice, with which one cannot even wash one’s hand and face. By melting the ice to water, it will flow anywhere, one can then wash one’s hands and feet or anything. Melt the mind and let it flow through your whole being and use it at any particular place as needed.
I want to acknowledge that my Zen teacher, Ken Kushner Roshi, is the Hara Development guy, and I’ve trained in and greatly benefited from hara development for many years. Even still, I had a lingering, if not slightly embarrassing question: “If this book is our key text, and Takuan clearly describes a superior technique for where to place the mind, why are we stuck on hara?” One learning point here: it’s important to notice and stick with the things you don’t fully understand until you can figure them out in your own body.
So, I’m reading and training with this text over several months and a few things finally made sense to me:
You can’t skip the elementary stage (putting your mind in your hara), which is fundamental. One needs to train the body/mind and build samadhi power to get to the advanced stage that he’s talking about. And this takes hard work. Its a given that hara would’ve been fundamental to Munenori’s experience, based on his training and culture.
Either because of the conditions of our modern world, or because it was always true (he mentions sages and saints lived constantly this way throughout their lives!) — we continually need to come back to what’s fundamental — hara breathing.
We do a form of intensive multi-day training called sesshin (translated from Japanese as “collect the mind”). I previously understood this as a metaphor — alluding to people coming together as one, or how clear the mind/body becomes from the training. But, now I understand this as literally “collecting the mind in the hara.” By the end of the training, my entire torso, from top to bottom feels like one big hara with all the benefits that come of breathing/living in that kind of body.
Once the hara is open and functioning in this way, you don’t necessarily need to focus your attention to breathe from the hara. You could be slouched over or laying down and still be in samadhi (relaxed concentration of no-self). This is a developmental stage of hara - when hara breathing becomes more subtle and automatic. It makes sense to me that the hara is the necessary entry point to a more consistent experience of a mind which permeates and functions anywhere.
More recently, I started reading Dürckheim’s Hara: the Vital Centre of Man with students. This book reviews different aspects of hara, including in Japanese culture and language. The author states: “The Japanese term Hara means nothing other than the physical embodiment of the original Life center in man.” (!!) Meaning hara is the seat of intuition and physical connection to Big Mind - the primordial source. It’s our empty space constantly exchanging breath for air and creating anew.
For people wanting to discover more about hara in their own body, Kushner Roshi and Ellen McKenzie have a new online Hara Foundations course that I recommend taking. You can find it linked here.
